Bryan Sykes, one of the world’s leading geneticists and best-selling author of The Seven Daughters of Eve, sets his sights on America, one of the most genetically variegated countries in the world. Sykes embarks on a road trip—DNA testing kit in tow—interviewing genealogists, anthropologists, and everyday Americans, tracing America’s history along a double helix that stretches from the last Ice Age to the present day. What emerges is an unprecedented look into America’s genetic mosaic that challenges the very notion of how we perceive race and what it means to be an American.
Bryan Sykes, professor of human genetics at Oxford University, pioneered the use of DNA in exploring the human past. He is the author of Saxons, Vikings, and Celts and the New York Times bestseller The Seven Daughters of Eve.
"It may seem odd for the author of a book on human genetics and heredity to thank his travel agent in the acknowledgments, but in the case of this hybrid work of science and cross-country reportage it’s a fitting gesture… Sykes writes lucidly, creating his own unique mixture in a book that might be described as Travels With Charley meets The Double Helix."